Those consumers looking for the best deals related to, for example hotel rooms, flights, rental cars or the like, used to have to search multiple service suppliers (e.g., travel related websites or the like). Metasearch systems now offer the convenience of aggregating information from several sources (e.g., travel related websites and suppliers) thereby reducing the number of searches necessary to find the best deals.
These so called metasearch systems may be configured for aggregating search results from multiple sources to identify, or otherwise obtain the lowest cost of hotel stays or airfare. For example, a metasearch system may be configured for performing queries (e.g., travel reservation queries) and presenting the search results from multiple websites (e.g., travel websites) to a consumer.
In some embodiments, a metasearch system may be configured to enable consumers to enter search criteria which is then used to generate queries to the multiple sources, the returned results then utilized to generate a listing of, for example, low-priced service offerings. The sources may include one or more of a centralized reservation system (CRS), a global distribution system (GDS), or any other system where multiple service providers, such as airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, cruise lines, bus services, etc., make services available for booking, reservation, and/or purchase. In some embodiments, suppliers may correspond to a system provided by an individual service provider (e.g., a specific airline, hotel or hotel chain, car rental agency, cruise line, bus service, etc.).
Given the volatile nature of the inventory, availability of any given service (e.g., a specific flight or hotel room) may be altered within a very short time period. The sources may be provided updated listings of inventory daily. The metasearch system aggregates results from other sites then redirects the visitor to one of these sites for reservations.
Metasearch systems derive revenue from pay per click advertising, for example, when the consumer clicks through to one of the compared websites (for example, when the consumer is redirected to the source's website). Accordingly, sources may provide, for each available service, a click-through bid to the metasearch system (e.g., reflecting how much a source is willing to pay to expose a consumer to a specified property offered by the source).
However, while metasearch systems send user requests to several search engines and/or databases and aggregate the results for a single destination, there is no technology known in the art which assists the supplier in optimizing revenue and profitability engaging in meta-auctions by managing participation in the meta-auctions based on run-time factors.